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The low income and vulnerable households should be fully protected from an increase in gas prices.
The International Monetary Fund says gas prices in Ukraine should be determined by the market.
"Gas prices for households in Ukraine have not been adjusted for two years. Despite international prices having gone up considerably, so this results in implicit subsidies, which are regressive, particularly in the sense that they benefit disproportionally the largest users. So, we believe that it's important to let the gas prices be determined by the market in line with the reforms that were implemented in 2016," IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said at an IMF press briefing on May 17.
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At the same time, he said that the vulnerable groups of the population in Ukraine should be protected.
"We also feel that it's very important that the low income and vulnerable households are fully protected from an increase in gas prices by the current household support system," he said.
As UNIAN reported, the government of Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Groysman, in 2016 adopted a resolution designed to streamline gas prices for all categories of the population in line with the market ones. Also, the resolution provided for a mechanism to automatically review prices every six months to bring prices to the market ones.
However, since then, there has been no review of the prices, and households pay Naftogaz of Ukraine for gas a much lower price than the market one.